Barbara Allen Frost

“Joyous Garden”

At 78, my hands just aren’t what they used to be…I shake a lot, especially if I try to do cloisonné work. So, when it didn’t work out for me to do a cloisonné of my theme, I decided to avoid any more frustration, and do one of my usual processes, a very freestyle kind of painting.  A wonderful friend who had a metal fabrication shop gave me all the 4” x 6” pieces of 18 gauge copper I’ll ever need. And that’s what this piece is done on.

Here is my process:  I put a bit of water in a jar of "dirty white", which is my contaminated #1030 Foundation White from Thompson....then just smoosh (technical term) it on a pre-fired dark background to create flower shapes, and with a brush, create other interesting things like the stems. The dots were made by my flicking the wet white enamel from a brush, a technique I learned in a watercolor class I took last year. This is fired to gloss, and then some sifted pink enamel with a bit of enamel acrylic paint were layered on top and refired.  Very simple, and satisfying, and quick.  If I ever don’t like what I did, I fire another dark (often #1190 Peat) enamel layer all over everything and take off in another direction.

The slight crazing on the top colors is a result of adding sifted enamels on top of the previous liquid white layer, a whole other process, but I like the ancient look it gives me.